


Apartment Neighbors

by BunKat



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: AU, Fluff, Gen, I suck at pacing I'm sorry, I wrote this before Christmas and never posted it oops, Neku is rude but gets better, Nonbinary Bito "Rhyme" Raimu, Nonbinary Character, Not Beta Read, RG Shiki, Real Ground Shiki, Secret Santa, apartment neighbors au, for the bands I literally just picked artists who wrote music for the game-, uhhhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-12 00:09:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29626122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BunKat/pseuds/BunKat
Summary: Neku is moving into a new apartment. Who will he meet?
Relationships: Beat & Eri & Joshua & Neku & Rhyme & Shiki (TWEWY), Bito "Beat" Daisukenojo & Misaki Shiki, Bito "Beat" Daisukenojo & Sakuraba Neku, Eri & Misaki Shiki, Kiryu "Joshua" Yoshiya & Misaki Shiki, Kiryu "Joshua" Yoshiya & Sakuraba Neku, Misaki Shiki & Sakuraba Neku
Kudos: 4





	Apartment Neighbors

The main reason Neku chose the apartment was because it was close to his work. The layout wasn't the best, and the flooring and wall paper were godawful, but it was surprisingly cheap for its location, and he was only going to be staying there for one or two years at most, until he made enough money to get out of the city and move somewhere farther away. But still, he had to move his stuff up three flights of stairs by himself today, and that was going to take awhile. Grabbing the first few of his boxes he began the first of his many ascents up the stairs. 

Man, he wished this place had an elevator.

By the time Neku reached the third floor he was a little winded, and reminded himself that he needed to set a pace for carrying all of his stuff. He shifted the weight of the boxes around until he could twist the doorknob. As the hinges creaked and the door swung open he readjusted his grip again and walked into the nearly empty room. Putting the boxes down in the farthest corner, Neku took another look around the room.

It was small, in a cramped way, not a cozy way. Neku was glad he didn't have too much stuff to carry up for two reasons now. Leaving his room he planned on going back down to the moving vehicle he had rented, as soon as he opened his door he hit the person standing on the other side.

"Ow!" She yelped and jumped backwards, dropping what she had been holding, a stuffed toy of some kind.

"Ach!" Neku exclaimed in surprise. "Who are you?"

The girl was slightly shorter than Neku, and had dark brown hair cut into a bob. She had a pair of round glasses covering her brown eyes and was wearing a black cardigan over a green shirt. Bending over to pick up her toy she replied "I'm Shiki. I live in the next apartment over."

Straightening up she adjusted her glasses and looked at the door in annoyance. "Aren't apartment doors supposed to open inward?"

Neku turned to inspect the door himself. "Yeah, it looks like they somehow managed to put it on backwards."

He turned back to the girl at the door. "Anyway I need to go get the rest of my stuff. I only have the truck until 2."

"Oh!" The girl, Shiki, perked up. "I can help you with that, if you want!" 

Help him move his stuff? And have plenty of opportunities to snoop through it while he wasn't looking? "No thanks, I got it."

Shiki seemed offended by that. "What? Why not?"

Neku rolled his eyes. "Because I don't want you to. Now, excuse me, I have to keep carrying this stuff."

And with that, Neku turned to walk down the stairs. Hopefully his new neighbor would leave him alone after this. He reached the bottom of the stairs and picked up another arm load of stuff. At least it seemed like she wouldn't be noisy, even if she was nosey. He made it back to the top of the stairs, and much to his dismay, Shiki was still there, and was talking to some tall blond guy wearing baggy clothes. Neku wondered if he could get past them without getting noticed. Unfortunately, the blond guy seemed interested in introducing himself.

"Ayo! I'm Beat! Shiki says you're moving into my old apartment!" He called out as Neku opened the door. 

No, really? "You used to live at this apartment complex?" Neku chose to say instead. 

Beat laughed. "Nah man, I still live here! But that apartment's electricity was wack and they chose to move me to the apartment on the other side of Shiki's!"

Great. So he got stuck with the place with a messed up door and screwed up electricity. No wonder this place was so cheap. 

"Anyway, I have to finish unloading my stuff right now." Neku said, trying his best to leave the conversation.

"Oh hey! Shiki and I can help you carry your stuff! She may not look it, but she's got pretty good arms when it comes to carrying stuff." Beat offered, clearly not knowing that an offer had already been declined.

"It's fine, I can do it myself." Neku said, placing the boxes he had just inside the door this time. However, Beat was not one to take no for an answer so easily.

"Aw, c'mon man! I promise we won't drop anything!"

Neku grit his teeth. "I can do this by myself. If you really want to help me, stop talking to me and leave me alone."

And with that Neku turned to go back down the stairs once again, leaving Beat and Shiki alone. 

"What the hell man?" Beat called after him. "Who put a stick up your-"

Neku turned the volume on his headphones up, drowning out the voice yelling at him. It's fine, he reminded himself. This isn't going to be forever, he'll be out of here soon enough.  
__________________________________

"Wow, what a jerk. He's worse than Joshua!" Beat commented, once Neku was out of sight. Shiki had to agree with him. Even though Joshua had them do all the work and didn't help at, at least he had said thank you once they were finished.

"Who's worse than me?" A new voice joined the conversation. Shiki and Beat spun around to see the dirty blond who lived on the top floor standing behind them.

"Bawaaa!" Beat yelped in surprise. "How do you do that?"

Shiki was slightly more used to Joshua's ability to sneak up on anyone and chose to focus on the question he posed.

"The new guy, who's moving in today. He's, well, he's kind of a jerk." She explained.

"Ah, is that him?" Joshua asked, pointing down at the parking lot where Neku had made his way to the moving truck he had rented. "He looks familiar, I wonder where I've seen him before?"

Shiki wondered how it was possible for him to ask a question only he would know the answer to and make it sound like he wanted one of the other two present to answer.

Joshua sighed deeply. "Oh well. Anyway, I was just making sure I was still coming over tomorrow?"

Shiki perked up. "Oh! Yes, can you be there at 6:30ish? Eri and I are still working on some of the designs we were making, but we should be done by then!" 

Joshua nodded, brushing his hair out of his face. "Of course, I'll see you then Shiki!"

"Oh, and Beat, Eri might come and get you for some modeling too, if you're willing." 

Beat looked surprised at the suggestion, but Shiki was giving him puppy dog eyes.

"Oh, it would be nice having another model to work with, I suppose…" Joshua agreed, looking thoughtful.

Beat sighed. "I invited Rhyme over for tomorrow, and I can cancel on them."

"Oh! Of course not," Shiki said, knowing how close Beat was to his younger sibling.

"Why don't we have them over too? I can order food for us all." Joshua offers. "After all, it is a special occasion, with Shiki and Eri's fashion line almost complete."

Shiki beamed. "Oh, thank you Joshua! That would be great!"

Beat, ever weak to the offer of free food, agreed too. This was going to be amazing.

__________________________________

The day so far had been a disaster. Neku had slept through his alarm, was almost late to work, and had forgotten to grab his headphones on his way out. He was manager of WildKat Cafe, and owner was someone he held a lot of respect for. However, just because he respected the owner didn't mean he respected the customers that came in. After spending hours working with angry customers with screaming children and businessmen who thought they were the most important people in the world, there was nothing Neku wanted to do more then go home, lay in bed, and listen to music for the rest of the day.

5:17 pm, Neku's Apartment.

Making his way back into his apartment he rubbed his face. He decided to take a shower. He was glad he had tomorrow off, but then he worked for the next three days in a row. Oh well, the more he worked the sooner he would be able to move out, and away from Shibuya, and maybe even Tokyo as a whole.

5:22 pm, Shiki's apartment.

Eri knocked on the door, holding bags of clothes, supplies, and designs that she and her best friend had spent hours working on. Shiki opened the door and helped her inside.

"Okay, so Joshua will be here in about an hour, and Beat and Rhyme are coming over then too." Shiki explained.

Eri nodded. "Yes, and Joshua is buying food, you told me. We have to hurry though. I know we're almost finished with these outfits, but we need to get going if we want to get done in an hour." 

6:02 pm. Shiki's apartment.

"This is as close as I can get it without getting Beats to actually be here." Shiki said, looking at the design she had. It was pretty good, but the measurements she had gotten before may have changed, and Beat didn't model for the two of them as often as Joshua did.

"I'll go get him." Eri offered, "You can keep working on that."

Shiki nodded gratefully. "Thank you."

Eri darted out of the apartment and over to Beat's door and started knocking.

6:03 p.m. Neku's apartment.

Someone was pounding on his door. Loudly. He was tempted to ignore it, but it wouldn't stop.

"C'mon out, we need your help!" A voice called. Neku groaned. What could they possibly need his help for. "Hurry! It's important!"

Neku walked over to the front of his apartment. "Step back!" He yelled, and opened the door.

"Hey we need you come over earlier-" a girl with pink hair down to her waist was talking to him, but stopped mid sentence when she looked at him. "You're not Beat."

Neku shook his head. "No, I'm not."

The girl's brow wrinkled, before she realized something. "Oh, he moved apartments, didn't he."

Neku nodded. "He's two apartments down now."

The girl looked slightly embarrassed. "Sorry, I forgot."

"Hello Eri!" A voice called out from behind the open door. The girl with pink hair looked over to see who it was.

"Oh, hi Joshua!" She called out.

A guy with dirty blond hair came over from behind the outward opening door and took a look at Neku.

"Ah, you must be the new guy, Niki, was it?" The guy, Joshua, greeted. "It's nice to meet you."

"It's Neku." He corrected, but didn't return the sentiment. This guy was almost a regular at WildKat, but he couldn't be bothered to remember Neku's name?

"Oh, I have to go get Beat!" Eri announced, and rushed away. 

Neku started to shut the door, but Joshua grabbed it and kept it open.

"Do you want something?" Neku asked, annoyed.

"Well, you just moved in, yes? And I think it would be nice for you to get to know us all a little better. We're having a kind of get together at Shiki's apartment, and I think you should come too!" Joshua offered. Neku got the feeling he wouldn't be able to say no, but he was going to try anyway.

"I don't think they would want me to come over-" Neku started, but Joshua caught his wrist and started pulling him out the door.

"Oh, they'd love to have you! The more the merrier, as they say!"

Neku groaned. Who was this guy anyway? He had a surprisingly strong grip on Neku's wrist, and pulled him with equal force to the next apartment over. At least he had his headphones this time. Joshua swung the door open without knocking.

"Eri, is Beat able to come?" Shiki called out without looking up from her needle work.

"Sorry to disappoint, but it's not Eri." Joshua replied. "I did bring a friend though!" 

Shiki did look up this time, and locked eyes with Neku. "Oh. Well, make yourselves comfortable. I'm going to be awhile."

"Thank you!" Joshua said and started to lead Neku over to the couch. Once they were there, however Joshua stopped, and started to leave again. "Oh, drat! I forgot to get the food! I'll be right back."

"Wait a minute-"

"Hey, you can't just-" 

But he was already gone. Neku looked around awkwardly. Shiki leaned back from her work. "Ugh, I really can't get any farther without Beat here."

There was a few seconds of silence.

Shiki spoke first. "So. You listen to music?"

Neku figured that if he left now Joshua would probably come back and get him, and it would be even more awkward and annoying for Neku and everyone else involved. "Yeah, I do."

A little more awkward silence. "So, what bands do you listen to?" Shiki tried again.

"I like Mai Matsuda, Andy KINLAY, and SAWA." Neku listed. "What music do you listen to?"

"Oh, I like The Prince!" Shiki said. "I know it's kind of basic, but Eri and I like listening to him when we work on designs together, so it's got a lot of good memories."

Neku looked down. "Yeah, I guess having music you listen to with your friends is nice…"

He thought back to the other day, carrying boxes by himself. He's old best friend's favorite song came on, and he barely even noticed because he was too busy trying to avoid Beat and Shiki.

He supposed he could spend one night with his new neighbors, getting to know them a little. 

"Oh! Neku, would you like to pick the music that plays while we dress up the models?"

"Wait. Do what?"

"Pick the music! There's an aux cord and speakers over there, and you can use my tablet if you don't want to use your phone."

Neku shook his head, "No, I know what picking music is, I was asking about the dressing-"

"Shiki! Beat's here, ready to be fitted!" Eri announced, bursting in the doors.

"Alright!" Shiki replied. "Joshua left to get food, but he'll be back soon, and I have his clothes ready anyway."

Neku sighed. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. But, seeing Beat, Shiki, Eri, and Beat's younger sibling, who Neku later learned is Rhyme, fall into an easy pattern of talking, laughing, and smiling, made him decide to stay. Even when Joshua came back with the food and the five friends put on a fashion show together, Neku smiled with them.

Maybe living with nosey, noisy neighbors wouldn't be so bad after all.


End file.
